Onenote + Outlook setup

06-19-2013, 02:12 AM

Hi,

I am new to these forums and I am trying to implement GTD using Onenote and Outlook. Outlook works very well for tasks and such, but when it comes to Onenote, the complexity and flexibility leaves me feeling a bit lost. I procrastinate more than I actually take any action, simply because I don't know where to file and track items. Do I put a goal on a single page, do I create a separate section for each of my areas of focus, a new notebook? If I am working on my page for today and an idea comes up like "Develop an optimal life management system", what do you do with it? Copy it to another page? Create links? Tag and add it to Outlook without moving it from that page? How do you connect it to other things like area of foucs, goals etc and track that what you did was part of something else. A better example than the above would be "I have to write or read X or Y" which I know is part of the goal "finish my thesis" which I know is part of my era of focus "Student" for instance...what to do?

Any input is greatly appreciated! I really avoid doing anything at all because of this, like "clean my dishes" because I don't know how to track the fact that I just did dishes...absurd but real nonetheless..

Comment

Stop linking, stop tracking. Do only those things the GTD book says to do. Put "R&D oneNote for gtd" on a someday/maybe list and forget you own it for now. Concentrate on next actions and projects you intend to finish within a year. No vague projects, like "become a more-organized person", either. Do a weekly review every week, using a checklist.

Comment

Stop linking, stop tracking. Do only those things the GTD book says to do. Put "R&D oneNote for gtd" on a someday/maybe list and forget you own it for now. Concentrate on next actions and projects you intend to finish within a year. No vague projects, like "become a more-organized person", either. Do a weekly review every week, using a checklist.

Thank you!

It was a real relief to just close all my notebooks, decide that I will perhaps fiddle with this later, but not now and just create a new book containing two clean and simple lists...

Comment

I agree with the above recommendations. I would add to that that with these 2 tools (Outlook and OneNote) you could easily manage your activities with Outlook alone, or OneNote alone, or with the combination of the two.

If you wished to do something similar in OneNote, you could manage your actions using Tags as your Contexts, and use the "Find Tags" and group by Tag Name or Title to review your lists by Contexts or Projects, respectively.

Comment

I agree with the above recommendations. I would add to that that with these 2 tools (Outlook and OneNote) you could easily manage your activities with Outlook alone, or OneNote alone, or with the combination of the two.

If you wished to do something similar in OneNote, you could manage your actions using Tags as your Contexts, and use the "Find Tags" and group by Tag Name or Title to review your lists by Contexts or Projects, respectively.

I really like the last link you gave me and I will add the content to my Onenote reference section (after reading it)

I tried tags earlier but found them very confusing and it started getting very messy very fast. My set-up is in its infancy, so when I started experimenting with tags, adding them to stuff I was working on, then later re-organized them in a different manner, the old ones never disappeared and I realized in order to view only unchecked items, I could only use tags with checkboxes...Anyways, now I just have 7 tags that I use (Current project, key notes readings (one for academic, one for personal development and one for general), and "Readings - needs review (ideas, questions, decisions)")

All my next actions goes into Outlook

Do you use Onenote?

Comment

Yes, I use OneNote for what we'd probably call Project Support Material, as well as as an INBOX for Collection -- very similar to what is demonstrated in the Michael Wheatfill blog I linked. Next Actions go into Outlook.